Headline News
LifeCare Goes Mobile: Delivering Critical Content to Handhelds

You're in the Emergency Room, waiting for news about your aging mother, who has fallen and broken her hip. You realize that she's going to need a place to live while she recuperates since she can't be on her own—an assisted living facility, perhaps, where she can receive professional care. You'd like to start searching for a facility immediately. Not a problem if you have two things: a Web-enabled handheld device (a cell phone or PDA) and access to LifeCare.

LifeCare has created a text-only version of its private web site, which enables people to access critical life event information and resources via PDAs, cell phones and mobile technologies other than standard computer/monitor setups. Thanks to the new site, LifeCare members can get the online support they need to quickly resolve a host of life event crises no matter where they are, 24/7. For example:

	parents can research backup child care providers during their train ride to work;
	adult children can access samples of living wills and other legal documents to help put aging relatives' affairs in order during a holiday visit;
	and car shoppers can download a list of helpful tips for purchasing a car while they're at the dealership.

“Life's challenges don't always come at the most convenient time or place,” said Jeffrey A. Burki, LifeCare's chief strategy officer. “So our goal is to help members resolve their challenges no matter where they are, when they need assistance or how they're reaching out to us.” This ability to easily access tools and information from mobile devices not only benefits members during crisis and critical situations but it also aids them when they're traveling, on vacation or merely unable to get to a personal computer.

With people using a wider array of devices to go online these days—PDAs, BlackBerry devices and web-enabled cell phones—LifeCare is making sure that its members have easy access to the company's full complement of tools and resources. “LifeCare is all about making people's lives easier,” said Burki. “So we're simply not going to be limited by time or place.”

The Benefits of Text-Only
LifeCare's new site entirely eliminates graphics and images, thus providing easier access and streamlined navigation for people using mobile digital devices, many of which have a limited capacity to display graphics. The text-only site maintains all of the functionality of the original LifeCare site, including access to dozens of state-of-the-art tools, resources and a wealth of work/life content. Most important, the site preserves members' ability to conduct customized local and national searches for providers of all types (health care, child care, adult care, adoption agencies, etc.). Burki added that members who have access to LifeCare's combined telephonic and web services have the ultimate level of convenience. “They can literally use their web-enabled cell phone to call a live specialist, describe the type of provider they're looking for, and then use their phone again minutes later to access a list of referrals sent by their specialist.”

Users with special accessibility needs (such as those using screen readers or other assistive technologies) will enjoy greater compatibility and speed with the new LifeCare site than with standard web sites. For the visually impaired, the new site allows them to increase and decrease the size of the font to enhance readability; change the color of the text in relation to the color of the background (from black text on a white background to yellow on black or black on cream); and even view text links in the form of buttons, which are easier to see.

Burki said that the company focused on three things while building the new site: clarity, convenience and control. The final item—control—led LifeCare to host the new site on its own server. “From the beginning, we weren't really interested in a third-party solution because that would require giving up some control,” Burki stated. “By hosting the site ourselves, we never have to worry about technical issues that are out of our hands. And we know for certain that all of LifeCare's stringent security protocols are in place and being followed at all times.”